The deployment and recovery of long mooring lines present dificulties that have not yet been satisfactorily overcome. Long lines involve the joining of a number of lines and the connectors, being of larger diameter than the line, are subject to snagging and complicate recovery of the line for which even spooling onto the storage reel is desired.
A known traction device uses a pair of grooved rollers to provide separation of the line wraps. However, with this device the wrap spacing is fixed, and a given device is suitable only for a limited range of line and/or connector size. Furthermore, since the lateral position of the line wraps on the grooved roller is constant, while the lateral position on the storage varies, there is a problem of bending of the line unless the traction device and storage reel are spaced a considerable distance apart, and hence such a system takes up considerable space. Also, such systems require a fairlead device for deployment as well as spooling-on.